Job 14:7, commentary and pictures

For there is hope of a cut-down tree that it will sprout again and its tender growth will not cease, because life remains in its root from which new growth springs by a natural process. This is set as a contrast with human death, not as proof of resurrection from nature, for a person cut down by death has no remaining life or spark within himself and cannot arise by any natural process. Death is a sleep of blank unconsciousness without sense or thought or knowledge, and the dead do not awake or return to earthly life until the heavens be no more. The hope is that God's own power will bring man again from the dust, hiding him in the grave till the appointed time when God calls and he answers to immortality through Christ at the last day. So the image of renewed life after apparent loss comforts mourners, that sorrow for the faithful dead is held with hope of their return through the first resurrection and reunion.

Tree's Renewal and Contrast

For there is hope of a tree cut down that it will sprout again and that its tender branch will not cease. Even when its root grows old in the earth and its stock dies in the ground, through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant. The reason it can do so is that it has not become utterly dead, for life remains in its root from which new growth can spring by a natural process.

The tree is set as a contrast with human death, not as an analogy for resurrection. What human observation knows about a cut-down tree growing anew gives no answer to whether a dead man will live again. The yearly return of leaves and blossoms after autumn's seeming death shows nature renewed by God as a promise of resurrection.

Against the tree's hope, man dies and wastes away and gives up the ghost. He is dissolved and mingled with dust like water failed and dried up by evaporation. He lies down and rises not, sleeping unawakened till the heavens be no more.

A person cut down by death has no remaining life or spark within himself from which to begin again. He cannot be restored by any human skill and cannot arise by any natural process. Life after death requires power from outside the person, by God's direct power.

Death as Unconscious Sleep

Job 14:7 belongs to Job's teaching that death is a sleep of blank unconsciousness, excluding sense and thought and enjoyment, and it does not teach that the dead are conscious. Unlike a cut-down tree that can sprout again, a dead person does not awaken or return to earthly life until the heavens are no more. Death is the exact opposite of life, the cessation of continued conscious existence, which disproves natural immortality. Death is a house of darkness and a place of dust and corruption, a land of darkness and forgetfulness with no remembrance, where thoughts perish and there is no work nor device and no knowledge nor wisdom.

The human dead do not awake or return to conscious earthly life in the present world and cannot communicate with the living until the heavens are no more. A cut-down tree can sprout again even after its root has grown old and its trunk has died when it receives water, but this hope contrasts with man, who dies and cannot be restored to life by any human skill. The dead lie in the grave unconscious until they are awakened and raised when the heavens are no more, for Job's hope is not life at death but resurrection at God's appointed time. Death is not a gate to endless life, and the hope of the grave is answered by the resurrection described in 1 Corinthians 15. Human beings are naturally mortal, not inherently immortal, so that without a resurrection even they that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished, with immortality coming only through faith in Christ and given at the resurrection or translation at the Lord's coming.

Job, though righteous, prayed to be hid in Sheol, which proves Sheol there is the grave, the common place of the dead for righteous and wicked alike and not the punishment of the wicked.

Hope of Future Resurrection

The hope held out is not that consciousness continues in death, but that divine power can bring a person again from the dust, as condensed vapor reproduces water, by hiding him in the grave until wrath is past. The dead wait there all the days of their appointed time, with God appointing a set time and remembering them, until their change to immortality comes when God calls and they answer and He shows desire for the work of His hands. That waiting is a sleep of death from which there is no awaking until the heavens are no more, with no other hope but to remain until the change comes at the resurrection of the just.

All that there is of man returns to dust, and future life depends wholly on the resurrection of the dead through Christ Jesus at the last day, with no other hope held out even for the righteous dead. Immortality comes only through faith in Christ and is given at the resurrection or translation at the Lord's coming. That resurrection is by reorganization from dust rather than raising the same buried particles, without respect to one portion of matter above another. It cannot be learned from philosophy or scientific deduction and is unaffected by it, because it depends only on the fiat of the Almighty and can be known only by faith in the Word of God, so that if Scripture affirms that the man who dies will live again, no natural, physical, or philosophical obstacle can thwart God's purpose to bring it to pass.

Job expected to be called from death and to see his living Redeemer, when the Redeemer stands at the latter day upon the earth and raises the dead to see God in flesh, giving eternal life and the kingdom of glory beyond the resurrection. Though death brings silence and darkness and the dead sleep in the dust, that hope of the grave is answered by the resurrection described in 1 Corinthians 15, showing that death is not a gate to endless life in itself. The verse thus expresses concern about what happens to the dead and the future of deceased loved ones, with hope that the upright who die rest in God's care even when people do not regard their death as a loss.

Comfort for Mourners

Job 14:7 was used at funerals as words of comfort, applying the image of a cut-down tree that sprouts again and whose tender shoot does not cease to hope in the face of death and apparent loss. In that setting it pointed to hope in the resurrection of the dead and to reunion beyond death. It gave comfort in bereavement at the death of a faithful Christian who lived a consistent Christian life.

For those who sleep in death there is no conscious existence, but there is hope of their return through resurrection. Sorrow for the faithful dead who die believing is therefore held with hope and not as hopeless grief. Death is a short sleep in Jesus, and one who dies in triumph of faith will rise again when Jesus soon comes.

There is hope for one cut down by death, like a tree cut down that will sprout again, and that hope is the first resurrection. The faithful dead who die holding the truth will live again, and their mourning loved ones grieve with hope and look forward to reunion at the first resurrection. The dead were described as asleep and awaiting the resurrection, with hope of sharing in the first resurrection beyond apparent death.

The chapter gave consolation to bereaved parents and friends after the death of a child. Its place alongside passages about resurrection and the dead in Christ connects it with hope beyond death for those grieving a believer. Beyond mourning, Job's story offers comfort and hope to people who suffer, that God can bring lasting good and blessing out of a trial even when His purposes are not yet understood.